After the Fact
by YushiMoto
Summary: Three years after the Organization XIII was defeated, the world was once more brought into peace. Or was it? Deep within the shadows of Darkness, a new and more terrifying Organization is born... AU future fic.


They did not know where they came from. The seven Nobodies had all cried out into the Darkness, the rolling, undulating sea of nothingness and blackness, and the Darkness had carried them all to the shores of a world, Ansem's Study in the Radiant Garden. They all had to recover and seeing how utterly nude they were, covered themselves, as they looked around the secret place, the computer whirring slightly. They watched each other, and then turned to stare at the computer.

"Where… are we…?" A male finally spoke up at last. He was unusual, even for a Nobody. One eye, his left eye, was a brilliant yellow, while the other eye was a sea green. He held what would look to be his little brother, but it was actually his twin, the one who entered the Darkness at the same time as he.

"The question is more like 'Who are we?' The 'where' is not as important right now," one of the three females corrected him. She had nearly purple hair, but when it hit the light, it was a flaming red. The smallest of the seven, the twin to the man, stood and moved away from him, stepping near the computer.

"Hey, where are you going?" the taller of the two stood and moved to his younger counterpart.

"Maybe this thing can tell us something… if we had the password…" The small one frowned at the screen, which had, in the background, the same symbol that each one of them was branded with. The small fingers began to press at random buttons until he was allowed inside the database, which had been updated by a small cricket, though none of them knew that at the time.

Unbeknownst to a girl who was still a youth at fifteen, who sat on a rotting bridge on Destiny Islands, she would play a very important role in the destiny of the worlds, as her father had did years ago. She did not think about her own destiny at the time, only about the strange dreams that she had been having for a while. Men with tanned skin, silver hair and yellow eyes, a mysterious blade that curiously looked like a key, and words. Lots of words. Things like "I want to line the pieces up--yours and mine" "Come on... quit playin' around and fight!" "Can you hear their euphoria?" "The Keyblade bearer must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds!" and "If the world is made of light and darkness… We'll be the darkness." The last one made her shudder in the cool night air. She stared at the ever silent, glowing moon and said, "What does it all mean?"

Going through the database alone gave the seven Nobodies all the information they could ever hope for and a lot of things they would never know about otherwise. Take for example, this place called The World That Never Was. There, it had said, lived thirteen of their kind, who had called themselves Organization XIII. Or, at least, they had, until they were raided upon and a man named Sora had killed them all. So it was to be that either this Organization XIII was weak, or that this Sora person was very strong.

What also surprised them was the fact that they had something no one else did as far as they knew. A disk had popped out of the side of the main monitor as a platform below them light up and hummed in time to the computer. Another of the women that was there, one with shock white hair, had looked to it, and disappeared, only to appear on the platform itself. That stunned all of them, including the woman that now called herself Ryxann. Even she herself did not know how she had done it. She had squeaked in fright as it rumbled slightly and opened up to reveal a set of stairs, which had faded into darkness. Ryxann had bounded down the stairs, making the others scramble to follow behind her.

Now, after carefully combing through the place, they had come across a room that none of them could get into.

"I say we just leave it," the red head woman said. She called herself Drex. "We can always come back to it later."

"We agree," the shorter of the twins named Kxdi said for himself and his twin, Txyr. The twins had found themselves to be telepathic in a sense, allowing one of them to communicate for both of them. Another of their ranks had simply nodded, who called himself Xebla. They were finding out that he could not or would not talk, yet he showed signs of extreme intelligence.

"Now, the question becomes, how do we get to this place… Never… Was…?" another of their ranks asked, the third girl who called herself Csohxyi.

"I could always do that thing I did, if I knew how I did it…" Ryxann said, but her voice trailed off as she finished the sentence.

"Look, even if we knew where it was, we couldn't get there. You're the only one, it seems, to be able to move out of your own will." Txyr countered.

"Hey, guys, check this out…" The only one who still hadn't taken a name motioned to them, beckoning to one final room none of them noticed and they all gasped.

"Thank you whoever made this place…" Drex breathed.

"HA!! KA-AAH!!" She hated this. She hated the feeling of fatigue, the sweat that blinded her from her 'uncle's' silver hair, and how heavy the bokken was becoming in her hands. Sora, her father and the Hero of Light, insisted, totally against her will mind you, that she become proficient in both magic and swordplay. Why, she had no idea, but he did, so she was helpless to countermand him from this final sentencing. She wasn't even good at any of it!! Her other 'uncle' Donald, taught her magic with Aeris. The only magic she was good at was healing because Aeris was patient, unlike Uncle Donald. She thrusted forward, which he easily countered, and bashed her side with his own sword. She wheezed and slammed into a wall, before groaning and sliding down it with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes again, she was staring at the point of a wooden sword.

"Dead," stated her instructor, the Hero of Darkness. Red moaned softly as the point was taken away from her face and she was allowed to stand once more. She wished she was dead. Then she wouldn't have to deal with this nonsense. She stood, slowly due to the pain in her side, and began to wash away the sweat and grime as Uncle Riku prattled on about her skill. Finally, he said, "You are getting better, though. That's the one thing I am proud about. Maybe you'll be able to take on the Darkness like Sora did…"

"What was that?" she questioned, turning to see the Hero look at her sternly.

"Nothing, now get a move on to Donald's before he has my hide for keeping you." She nodded before she turned and left for the magician's house.

Xebla carefully chopped the carrots that they had found with other tubers and things that they knew were alright from their memories as Somebodies. It wasn't enough to feed six people that was for sure. He wouldn't eat tonight. He would be chivalrous. Besides, he really wasn't hungry.

The others were, however, and he had to feed them whatever they could find, which was, right now, next to nothing. He had to make up for his lack of speech. It wasn't that he didn't want to, oh how badly he wanted to add his own comments to the mix, but that he couldn't. It was entirely possible that the vow of silence was due to his Somebody making that vow and passing it onto him. He carefully maneuvered the dirt to his will, making sure that none of it got into the food, spicing and flavoring the otherwise bland broth. Ryxann came with several rabbits for him, grinning like a fiend. He nodded his approval and began to clean them for serving in the vegetable broth that was their dinner.

"You're doing well," Aeris stated as she set the plate of cool, refreshing food in front of the disgruntled Red.

Red pulled on the black, square-ish glasses as she said surly, "Then why doesn't anyone else tell me that?" She hated it all. She hated the stupid glasses that she was forced to wear, she hated the training that she had to do, she hated this stupid prison of sand and water and papou fruit, she hated it all.

A new voice added to Red's bad mood. "Because they are trying to help you. They are seeing you at your fullest, and they are trying to get you to that point in your life." There was no reason why her heart should sink as she heard the familiar 'step thunk', 'step thunk' approaching her closer and closer until she could look up to see her father's figure loom over her like an ominous shadow, but there was nothing sinister about him. It was still the same, innocent smile that the pictures had captured long ago. His eyes were still too blue to be real, and his wild brown hair had, at last, been tamed to something more reasonable. She had to look away, or else be caught within the innocent depths of those blue orbs.

"Hello dad," she muttered into her hand.

"Hello pumpkin," Sora responded, "How was your day?"

"Fine dad." She couldn't bear it. He still had that same innocence about him that the pictures had captured for her to look at, the bright smile still plastered on his face, the loving attitude he seemed to ooze out of every fiber of his being. If it were up to her, he would hate her with every fiber of his being. After all she was the one to make him-

"Sora!!" Aeris gasped in mock surprise, "What a pleasant surprise to see you here!!" That alone was enough to startle Red out of her sulking mood. Sora's brows came together ever so slightly in worry.

"Are you alright, Red?" He had not given her that name. That was a name she had chosen for herself, and insisted everyone call her, even himself and her mother, Kairi.

"Just fine dad," she responded, staring at the half eaten plate once more. He sighed under his breath. In many ways, she was just like him when he was young, and in many other ways, she was just like Riku just before that storm… The prophecy that Yen Sid had told him on his death bed was just about to start. Any day, the same storm that had whisked him away from Destiny Islands would take his child just as cruelly from him.

"Xebla, this is delicious!!" Tyxr exclaimed, making himself a bowl of the delicacy.

"………….." he said nothing, as was usual for him. He simply stared at his feet, as if he could find the meaning of life within the wrinkles of skin. He wore no shoes.

"Aren't you hungry?" Colorless yellow hair and poison-green orbs stared at the already flustered sand wielding man. He nodded somberly and stepped back into the shadows to observe the six Nobodies as they ate.

Xebla was a weird one, Ryxann concluded as she ate from a pilfered bowl and spoon. What she hadn't told anyone was that outside of these walls there was a fairly large city where she got the rabbits from. 'Oh well,' she thought as she happily slurped up the fatty, delicious soup, 'What they don't know won't kill them. Besides, I'll tell them tomorrow. Gods, this is good considering we had nothing but a few scraps to eat out of an entire cities' worth of food.'

It was the calm before the storm. She had woken from another disturbing dream, one where she had to choose a weapon that was either a shield, a sword, or a staff and fight off these blobs that would have been cute if they hadn't been trying to kill her for reasons unknown. She had to perform various tasks, such as opening a chest, lifting a barrel, and opening a door. The door had led her to fight another blob; save for the fact that this blob was ten times her size and could have easily crushed her underfoot.

She sighed and sat up, watching the clouds roll in and begin to rain upon the small island when she saw someone outside, on the miniature island connected by the bridge she had spent many a night on, contemplating her life. 'Curiosity killed the cat,' she thought bitterly as she got dressed and went outside to see who was foolish enough to be standing out in the pouring rain.

'Curiosity defiantly killed the cat,' she reminded herself as she ran to the safety of a small shack, an easy access point to the bridge. She slammed the door to the shack tightly, and was surprised that the blobs didn't follow her inside. Red ran up the stairs to get to the bridge and gasped when she saw who was on the raised island.

They had been startled out of sleep by something yelling, "Hey! Who are you people! Get out!" Kxdi was the first one to locate the sound of the noise, and turned his head upward to the computer, where a small cricket was jumping up and down, yelling at them with anger in his voice. The rest were still sleeping or waking up slowly, but not the little one. Already, his mind was running at a breakneck pace.

The child opened his eyes wide, as if about to cry. "Look, is a big misunderstanding sir." His voice warbled slightly, adding to the effect. "My friends and I… we kinda fell here. We don't know how we got in or how to get out." He saved the others from having to explain or having to save them from the daunting task of killing such a tiny thing. "Please sir, good sir, kind sir, gentle sir; please don't kick us out into the unknown. I promise that we will face it in the morning, when it is light outside and we are able to better see. But if you want us out…" He didn't finish his sentence, allowing it to trail off.

The littlest of the Nobodies all had touched the cricket in way that they couldn't possibly understand. He sighed and looked at all of them sternly, like a father would a child trying to worm his way out of trouble. "Now, you all look here," he said, "if I catch you all in here when I come back tomorrow, there'll be big consequences for all of you. Now, I bid each and every one of you good night." And with that, the cricket hopped from his place at the computer to hop away into a corridor that had not been searched yet.

One the cricket had left; all of them smirked or smiled in some way, if not downright dissolved into rowdy laughter. Then, when they could laugh no more, they fell back once more into sleep.

"Dad, why are you here?" Red questioned, uncertainty clearly showing on her face. She had to shout over the wind in order to be heard.

"There's no time to explain love!" her father replied, seizing her by her wrist and shuffling to a place she had seen before, the place where her Dad kept his Gummi ship from when he was traveling the 'verse to rid it of Darkness and seal up the Keyholes. She saw that the Gummi Ship of legend, the Highwind, rotting silently away with the rest of the island inside of the tiny cave, the poor thing barely having enough room for two people to move around it and the ship itself. It looked like someone had cleaned it up though, and this she thought strange. She didn't have time to marvel at this small fact, though, as she was shoved inside with haste.

"It's set to take you to friends of mine that live in the Radiant Garden. Look for guys named Cloud, Squall, and Cid. They should help you along the way. Now go!!" He pushed a button on the ship and the ship began to start up as he shut the door.

"Dad, wait!!" Red called out, but it was too late to wait. There was nothing more she could do, save for buckle her seat belt and hold onto the steering wheel for her life.

Sora stepped away from the ship as it took off, watching with sadness the decades of vines and branches crack off as his trusty Highwind took flight. There was a flicker of motion beside him, but he wasn't frightened. Everyone had fled the island. Only he and Riku remained with the Shadow Heartless.

"Ready to leave once more?" the man with moonbeams for hair asked him. He said nothing, but stared first at the door where the Heartless were pouring out of, then to the wound up in the canopy above them. He finally nodded as several Heartless had noticed them and wound there way over to the two potential Heartless. A Corridor was opened, and the two friends set off once more into the world of the Shadows.

Red was terrified. There was no way that this could be happening to her, but as she watched as Destiny Islands was swallowed up, she couldn't help but shudder. She didn't like this feeling of helplessness that surrounded her like a wet blanket. She didn't like it at all. She'd much rather have to be a ruler of a country instead of stumbling blindly through a game she didn't know the rules to. She shed a few tears for the home she had lost. She didn't hate the world, really, but she always thought she was better somewhere else. Maybe this… Where did Dad say again? Radiant Garden? It had to be better than the hell hole with a beach. Now was the time that she lamented not reading and listening more to the tales of Darkness. She wondered if everyone had gotten off the island alright, and if they hadn't, that they had been sent to a place of peace.

She thought on the one time she had been allowed in here. She was younger, and her father was still sealing up the Darkness. She had begged and pleaded with him that he let her, and finally, he relented, allowing her onto the ship. She had gotten to see another world, and she hadn't headed her father's words when he said them. He had lost his leg protecting her… and the world seemed cold and cruel right about now. She shuddered and tried her best to curl within herself, trying to forget that tragic part of her life.

Morning was started by a lot of yawning, rubbing of eyes, and popping of backs. There wasn't a single Nobody out of the seven that had gotten a decent night sleep. Xebla quickly reheated the remains of dinner, which was hastily scarfed down, lest the talking cricket come back to do as he had threatened.

"So… Where now?"

"We have to keep our promise."

"But where do we go?"

Many voices were pounding at the twins. They didn't understand. The voices were whispering for greed, power, lust, and every sin in between. Kxdi clung to Tyxr's neck, wanting the voices to go away and leave them alone, when all seven Nobodies were disoriented as they felt another of their own come into being. He was crying out for someone to find him immediately, and the one who had no name volunteered himself to find out what had happened in the Darkness.

"I'll find out who it is and if he's worth our time. In the meanwhile, you all try to find us some decent place to live for now, and where we might find clothing…" he looked down to stare at his naked form, before opening up a black hole in a wall and stepping through it, allowing it to close around him.

Of course, Nobodies don't have hearts. That doesn't stop them, however, from feeling cold as they found their way outside. The cold didn't sink in until the marvel of seeing nothing but stairs and something in the distance that looked vaguely like a town had died down. Then, all of them were freezing, save for Csohxyi, who was perfectly fine. Dirt, sand and gravel began to be called to Xebla, who covered himself from neck to toe in the heavy earth, leaving some 'cloth' for a hood. Drex blinked at him, then repeated this process. It wasn't a surprise. She just used the powers of others when it hit her: that _was_ her power, to control and manipulate the other's powers to her own will.

"H-h-h-hey… a l-l-l-l-lit-t-t-t-tle p-p-p-prot-t-t-ection would b-b-b-b-e n-n-n-nice too…" Ryxann chattered, hugging at herself. Xebla nodded, and 'clothed' everyone in dirt and sand.

"Hello? Is anyone down there?" It was a new voice, sounding like a girl that only had to be about fifteen or sixteen in age. Then, the girl stepped into view. She had orangeish red hair and muted brown eyes due to the square glasses she wore on her face. For the most part she wore red: Red jacket, red and black pants and shirt which looked to be once piece, red gloves, and even red shoes. She looked confused, and if she hadn't spoken, most of them would have assumed it was a very pretty boy.

"Oh good!" the strange girl sighed softly and held her chest, looking relived, "Maybe you guys know the way to Cid's!!"

"Uh, I'm sorry, no we don't. We're new ourselves," Csohxyi said, looking apologetic. The girl's face fell slightly.

"Oh. Well, maybe we can find him together!" The girl brightened up at that thought. "Name's Red. What's your names?"

"Csohxyi, Drex, Ryxann, Txyr, Kxdi, and Xebla. There's another one among us, though he isn't with us right now."

"Gods, those are odd names, though I can't say much myself…" her hand went behind her head and the smile turned apologetic.

This Red character was more odd than anyone he was traveling with currently, Xebla thought quietly, which was heard by Txyr and his twin, Kxdi. They both looked at Xebla, who just stared at the ground.

"Well, if you guys were just down there, then I guess he's over there." Red turned to look at the city in the distance.

"Yep."

"So let's go!!" Red turned on her heels and ran. The other six groaned and began to follow the hyper female to the city.

Well, what do you think? I'm pretty new to , so the stuff that I'm going to post is gunna be pretty blah, until I figure out how to work this thing. Please, leave a note to help me.


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